One Plus One Equals Three
by Shadow Padawan
Summary: The silence in which longing, jealousy and misunderstandings brew. Regulus/Severus, Evan. Implied slash.


**Title: **One Plus One Equals Three  
><strong>Author:<strong> Shadow Padawan  
><strong>Pairing:<strong> Regulus/Severus  
><strong>Rating:<strong> PG  
><strong>Word Count: <strong>852  
><strong>Summary:<strong> The silence in which longing, jealousy and misunderstandings brew.  
><strong>AN:** Written for the **Rarepairs Wishlist Fest** on livejournal.

* * *

><p>"Offer me a lemon sherbet and you die."<p>

Regulus looked uncertainly at the bowl of sweets in his hand, then back down at Severus who was still head-down, scratching his quill across the parchment. "Alright then." He placed the bowl on the table and sat down across from Severus, eyeing the other boy carefully for several moments. "How did you know I had lemon sherbets anyways? You never even looked up."

"Evan told me you had them. And only you would seek me out in the back of the library." Severus tore his eyes away from the parchment to consult a large, dusty volume at his left.

Regulus shrugged. "Where is Evan?" Lately the two had been inseparable much to Regulus' disappointment. The young Black knew he was no where near as attractive or flashy as Evan, no where near as social and flamboyant. Actually, Severus was right, he was the only one who would seek Sev out in the library. Regulus was about the only Slytherin around their age, except for Barty and Severus himself, who bothered to go to the library very often.

"Somewhere with Jack I think." For once Severus sounded disinterested.

"What are you working on?" Regulus asked, sliding one hand across the spine of a large book. He tilted his head to the side and read the titles of the books in the stack. His eyes narrowed. "You're working on the calculations for that potion aren't you?" he hissed excitedly. "The one that Karkaroff and Mulciber—"

"Shhhh! Black, keep it down for Merlin's sake!" Severus looked up and into Regulus' eyes for the first time. His eyes were blazing and Regulus was amazed by the intense passion there. "Yes, it's the one," Severus said in a barely audible whisper.

Regulus blinked, then jumped from the chair and moved to sit beside Severus instead. "Let me have a look, would you?"

"Regulus, just because you got an Outstanding in potions doesn't mean you…" Severus paused and looked up, realizing he may be saying something offensive. "It's just complicated," he finished awkwardly and looked back down.

Regulus drew himself up slightly, eyes narrowed, but didn't comment the almost-insult otherwise. "Either way, won't you let me look. I am better than you at Blood concentration calculations."

Severus made a face. Touché. Those sort of things were Pureblood know-hows that were hard to become privy to. "Alright," Severus agreed grudgingly. "Perhaps you could help me with this? The equation's not working properly and I don't understand why. I'd rather not ask Barty to loan me his arithmancy skills for a proofing."

Regulus nodded. He took a clean peace of parchment and reached for Severus's quill. Their hands touched briefly as Regulus did so and Severus held on to the quill for a moment longer than necessary. Then the moment passed, and Regulus wrote out the equation then began to examine the variables. "Here's your mistake," he said after a moment. "You're treating squib blood like Pure blood. There's a reason a squib can't use magic. The active magical particle in their blood is paralyzed."

"So…should I treat it as muggle blood?"

"No-no!" Regulus laughed and shook his head, black silky strands flying out of the ponytale he'd put his hair in. Regulus had one of those warm, soft smiles so rare not only in Slytherin but everywhere, as far as Severus could tell. "Squibs have their own coefficients. Here, I'll show you." Regulus began to draw up a chart as Severus watched him, eyes sliding from the writing to the side of Regulus' face. Once done, Regulus slid the chart over. "There." He looked up and froze, noticing how Severus was looking at him. "What?"

Snape cleared his throat and shook his head. "Um, thanks. This helps."

Regulus shrugged. "No problem. Tell me when you're done? I could spot you down in the lab."

"Evan's already going to do that," Severus mumbled distractedly going back to his work.

"Oh." Regulus stood carefully, purposefully, and walked around the table to get his book bag. "Are you sure I can't offer you a lemon sherbet?" he tried awkwardly.

Severus put down his quill and looked up at Regulus, head cocked to the side. "You know I_ hate_ those."

Regulus shrugged. "It was worth a try. I'd offer something else…if I could."

They looked at each other for a while, Snape's eyebrows crawling slowly up his forehead in the silence. "Why can't you?"

Regulus flushed, the bowl of sweets teetered precariously in his hand. "I should go," he muttered hurriedly, turning away.

Severus reached out to grab Regulus' wrist but missed and the boy managed to slip away between the high, tome-stuffed shelves. Snape stared after him for a moment, then shook his head and went back to work.

At the library entrance, Regulus nearly ran head-first into Evan. "Regulus!" Evan said cheerfully, his bright smile in place as always. "You from the library? Is Sev in there?"

Regulus looked into Evan's handsome face for a moment, considering the other boy's deep, dark blue eyes. "No," he said finally, flatly. "No, he's not."


End file.
